Sleeping Beauty
by VividBlues
Summary: Some events in life are exactly the stuff of fairy-tales; you believe if you want to. Sequel to WK, but stands alone as well.


A.N.: I liked my amnesiac Soifon so much I couldn't stop thinking about her, and this is the result. This one-shot goes to CaptainYoruichi from the YoruSoi FC, who suggested a sequel to Wernicke-Korsakoff. It stands alone as well, though. Before writing YoruSoi, I never thought I could be a fluffy kind of person, but now I admit it, fluff is much more my style. Makes me happy, you now.

Also, I don't own Bleach. If I forgot to say this in any of my fics, I hope everyone realises this doesn't make it any less true for them.

Ah, and if anyone noticed Soifon has Korsakoff syndrome but not Wernicke's; well, I just thought the title sounded better that way (and they just stole my hyphen!).

* * *

Sleeping Beauty

"So, you want to hear the story of the captain Soifon and the Shihouin princess? That's one of my favourites to tell. Let's just all sit down here and I'll tell you as I remember it.

"Once upon a time, there was a captain in the Gotei thirteen who was a skilled onmitsukido commander known by the codename Soifon. This captain was as beautiful as she was deadly, an no oponent of hers used to get more than a few seconds into the fight before meeting their end at the second sting of her soul cutter. So, she lived and worked hard, until came the winter war..."

* * *

"What can you tell me about her condition, Unohana-taicho?" Yoruichi's usually confident and playful voice asked in a strained tone.

"It hasn't changed any from our last conversation, Yoruichi-san. She's like that due to a head trauma; it's not a cause we have a means to reverse. We hoped that her own brain could find a way around the damaged area to reestablish her memory functions, but it has been a long time now, and it didn't happen. I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do except to give her the best support care available in the fourth division."

"I see" she replied, avoiding the gentle healer's eyes. "If it's like that, I suppose she has no reason to stay here anymore" she said, seconds later. "Wouldn't it be better for her to stay with me in my estate if I can provide that support?"

"This is a wonderful idea, Yoruichi-san; I've been considering it for sometime now. I'm sure she'll be happier and less agitated living with you, and it will make it easier for you to spend your time with her. I know I can trust you to take good care of her. I see what you've been trying to do, it's a nice gesture."

Yoruichi couldn't help but frown slightly at those words. Her gifts were not just nice gestures, damnit! It was going to work, she would bring Soifon's memory back one day; one day, one of those gifts would do it. Despite those thoughts, she could understand the healer's need to make the situation clear. She knew it was useless to argue with a person trying to help you.

"Thank you", was all she ended saying.

* * *

"... and just as the princess worried, one day the healers said that nothing more could be done. The princess was profoundly sad, but she wouldn't abandon the captain like that. And that's how the captain moved to the Shihouin mansion, and started living under the dedicated care of the princess" - he said, interrupting his tale to sip on a cup of tea.

"And that's it?", a disappointed voice asked. "What a stupid story. And it's all wrong; why is the princess taking care of the captain? It should be the other way around."

"Calm down, oh, impatient one. It's not my fault, things just happened like this. And I'm not done yet. Do you want to hear the rest or not?" - he smiled seeing the relutant nod from the other, curious about the deadly captain's sad fate - "So, where was I? Ah, yes, the princess took good care of the captain. During the day, she divided her attention between her princessly duties and checking on the captain's well-being, also bringing her a small gift everyday in the hopes that it would bring her past and future memories back. She couldn't forget her concern at night either, as night is a time when all fears take greater proportions. So, she always went to visit the captain after sunset as well."

* * *

Being once again the commander of the onmitsukido didn't leave Yoruichi as much time to spend with Soifon as she would have liked. It helped greatly to distract her from her suffering, though, and she always concentrated fully on her duties when she wasn't at home. The second division, on the other hand, was still without a captain, and Yoruichi unconsciouly took that as a sign that Soifon would return to her post one day. That, and many other unconscious or conscious signs she felt or made up, kept her faithfully in her routine of bringing the young woman gifts with strong personal meaning everyday, certain that one of them would somehow trigger her memory. Once she even gave Soifon a second division haori, and it was a strange experience. Soifon was sure the white vest should belong to Yoruichi (since, to her, Yoruichi was still captain of the second), but she kept saying there was something out of place with it; that even though it looked like a second division haori, there was something surely fake about it. It was only when she spied the captain in the process of sniffing her own haori that Yoruichi realised what was out of place to her: the smell. Having been one of Soifon's own, the cloth didn't have Yoruichi's smell on it. She didn't know what to make of that discovery.

But it wasn't just in daylight that Yoruichi visited her friend. At night, she found it difficult to contain her anxiety, and she always dropped by Soifon's room for a little talk. She soon discovered a side of her ex-subordinate she would never have guessed before: the woman always slept peacefully after hearing her tales. So she started to always come prepared with a tale of the Soul Society or of the world of the living, and skillfully told it to her attentive audience. Soifon wasn't really able to retell any of the stories afterwards, but the gentle voice of the older woman always managed to provoke her imagination and eventually to lull her into sleep.

A few minutes after ending the tale of the sleeping beauty, Yoruichi remained seated at the edge of Soifon's bed, simply watching her sleep. How she wished in that moment that she could bring her back with just a single kiss. The thought seemed so perfect, the princess caught herself really considering it. Since taking her into her house, Yoruichi had been determined not to fall into the weakness of confessing her feelings to the girl anymore; she felt like she was using her friend for her own easy gratification, given that she knew now the many reactions the other could take, and Soifon could never see it coming even once, forgetting all about it in a matter of minutes. But now, as she gazed at the serene face of the woman sleeping on the bed, she knew she was losing that battle with herself. And there was always a little voice that whispered, "what if it works?".

* * *

He sipped his tea again.

"What happened then?? Did it work??"

"No."

"Gah! What a stupid story, I told you it wasn't right for the princess to save the captain anyway!"

"But it's not over yet... I promise you, it gets better."

"Ok, ok, I'll hear it..."

"So, it didn't work. But the princess now had a big problem; having once kissed the captain's lips, she couldn't get the idea of kissing her again out of her head. For a few days she could control herself. But as the time passed, she ended up falling again on her routine of declaring her love, just now she also stole one small kiss from her every time before the captain could forget what happened.

"She felt guilty, but she couldn't help herself. And it was her guilty feelings that always made her pay even more attention to the captain's behaviour, to make sure she didn't really remember anything. As the days passed..."

* * *

And there she was again, at night, at the door of Soifon's room. She knew what she would end up doing, and wasn't proud of it. This couldn't convince her to turn back anyway, so she just knocked and walked in with a smile.

"Good evening, Soifon."

"Good evening, Yoruichi-sama", she replied, blushing a little. Yoruichi noticed she was blushing more easily lately, but dismissed that as wishful thinking on her part.

"So, were you playing with that little cat?", Yoruichi asked pointing to the black cat figurine on Soifon's hand, although she knew the woman wouldn't be able to remember what she had been doing before.

"Oh. I was. It's a beautiful thing. It's yours, isn't it?"

"You can have it, since you found it."

"I can have it? But this is just too beautiful, Yoruichi-sama, are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure" Yoruichi answered with a large smile. "You seem to like it much more than I do. What do you like about it best?"

"What I like about it..."

Soifon seemed to be thinking hard on that question, and Yoruichi prepared herself to hear one of the many stories she always made up to explain why she liked that black cat so much. She wasn't prepared for a new one, though.

"I guess... it reminds me of you, Yoruichi-sama."

Yoruichi was sure her heart stopped from the effect of those simple words. She got closer to Soifon, trembling. "H-how?"

"I... I don't know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"Please, Soifon, tell me why it reminds you of me..."

"I have this feeling... many things in this room remind me of you, I'm not sure why... I suppose it makes sense, since I'm in your house... why am I at your house? Oh, yes, I remember now... no..."

She couldn't believe it. Soifon was remembering things! Or was it just an illusion? She was such an intelligent person, her confabulations sometimes got even Yoruichi convinced. But as hard as she tried, Yoruichi couldn't keep that hope from growing inside her with each of Soifon's quiet words.

"Don't... don't worry about that right now, Soifon. You are here with me, that's all that matters, ok?"

"Yes... that's all that matters... Yoruichi-sama, there's something I need to tell you, and I'm so worried you'll be mad at me..."

"What is it, Soifon? Whatever it is, I promise not to get mad at you" Yoruichi reassured her gently, adrenaline still coursing through her veins from the unexpected conversation she was having with the younger woman.

"When I'm near you... I remember a dream that I had, I don't know when" she paused, looking bravely into the older woman's bright golden eyes. "In this dream, you talk to me... like you always talk to me, you're so kind... but then... then you tell me you love me..." - Yoruichi gasped, and couldn't keep from tearing up anymore - "... it... it wasn't a dream, was it? It wasn't really a dream... an then..." Soifon said slowly, and slowly closed in, giving her princess a gentle kiss.

* * *

"And that's how the captain gradually got her memories back. The healers later said that the memory is strongly related to the feelings, and that the captain's instinctive reactions near the princess worked as a pathway to her locked memories. I personally prefer the theory that this sleeping beauty just needed more than a single kiss to wake up from her slumber" - he said, ready to hear some comment about how stupid that story really was.

"What happened then?" - the other's trembling voice said, while the person looked down trying to hide their tears.

"Isn't it obvious? They lived happily ever after."


End file.
